John

General Editor

David A. Hubbard

Old Testament Editor

John D. W. Watts

New Testament Editor

Ralph P. Martin

ZONDERVAN ACADEMIC

John

Copyright © 1989 by Word, Incorporated

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition © June 2020: ISBN 978-0-310-11512-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beasley-Murray, George R.

John: George R. Beasley-Murray.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-849-90024-4

1. Bible N.T. John—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. John. II. Series.

BS2615.2.B385 1989

266’.507-dc19

89-5299

Scripture quotations in this volume from the book of John, unless otherwise identified, are from the author’s translation in John, Volume 36, of the World Biblical Commentary, copyrighted 1987 by Word, Incorporated. See the Index for abbreviations for the other versions used in this volume.

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 /LSC/ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To P. H. Warwick Bailey

my first pastor,

through whom I learned of Christ

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

1. Interpreting the Gospel of John

Authorship

Purpose

Jesus after the flesh—after the Spirit

2. The Word Made Flesh

The Word in ancient times

Christ—the Word

Christ—the Mediator

The only Son

The I am sayings

3. The Signs of Jesus and Their Significance

The water into wine

Two healings

The feeding of the multitude and walking on the sea

The healing of the man born blind

The raising of Lazarus

4. Jesus and the Jewish Festivals

The Passover Festival

The Festival of Weeks

The Festival of Tabernacles

The Festival of the Dedication

5. Jesus and His Own: The Upper Room Discourses

The footwashing and prophecy of betrayal

The departure and return of Jesus

Jesus, the True Vine

The opposition of the world to the church

The ministry of the Spirit and the joy of the disciples

The prayer of consecration

6. The Glorification of Jesus

Notes

Index of Scriptures

FOREWORD

Already George Beasley-Murray’s John in the Word Biblical Commentary series has been hailed as a monumental study of the spiritual Gospel. Scholars and students are discovering fresh insights and penetrating observations on this central New Testament book. Not all readers today, however, are interested in the minutiae of the academic debate on the fourth Gospel. Rather, they are looking for guidance on the leading themes of John as material for pulpit messages, Bible-class themes, and practical daily living.

This book in the continuing series of Word Biblical Themes is designed expressly for a general audience, especially busy pastors and preachers and layfolk who want to be informed by the most reliable teachers of the church.

Dr. Beasley-Murray brings to his assignment a wealth of past experience—as minister of a local congregation for many years, then seminary principal in charge of the famed Spurgeon’s College in London, and later professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Now retired from these key posts, he still is active in preaching and teaching. He is eminently qualified to offer this study on John which distills and puts into succinct form the massive research of his larger commentary. Dr. Beasley-Murray works with an eye always on his audience which will appreciate his easy style and helpful approach to this Gospel.

No one can fail to profit from his latest work.

PREFACE

Anyone who is concerned to gain an understanding of the Christian faith will pay special attention to the four Gospels, in the endeavor to learn something sure about Jesus. This has been true of the present writer. On reflection, however, he realizes that the Gospel of John has occupied a unique place in his thinking, his life, his preaching, and his teaching. In his experience theological students find this book to be of unparalleled interest, including even its complex background, which throws a flood of light on the story it records. People in the churches are similarly fascinated when the unsuspected depths of the Gospel are uncovered and explained to them. John’s Gospel is the preacher’s Gospel par excellence. It is therefore the more regrettable that preaching and teaching about this Gospel often remains on a superficial level and ignores much that lies waiting to be discovered and proclaimed.

This little book is intended to be a kind of mini-handbook to the profoundest book of the Bible, to help preachers and teachers to grasp its message and worthily to make it known. Hopefully it may stimulate some to resort to the great commentaries that have been written on the Gospel, and so lead to the satisfaction of attaining a fuller understanding of the so-called spiritual Gospel.

Chapter 5, on the Upper Room Discourses of Jesus, reproduces the substance of an article which appeared in the Review and Expositor, volume 85, 1968, pp. 473–83; the writer expresses his gratitude to the editor for permission to utilize it.

George R. Beasley-Murray

1

INTERPRETING THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Ever since the church realized that it possesses not one Gospel but four it has come to see that the Gospel of John is different. Something about its presentation of Jesus marks it off from the others, and makes it unique. A great deal of discussion about this difference has taken place in modern times. It used to be said that whereas Matthew, Mark, and Luke gave the bare facts of the story of Jesus, John gave us the facts plus interpretation. We now know that that is an overstatement. Each of the first three evangelists had his own understanding of Jesus, and each wrote up his account in order that the light of Christ might shed its maximum illumination upon the circumstances of the churches he knew. Those men had profound insight into the life and teaching of Jesus and the revelation of God that he brought.

Yet everyone who has considered the matter agrees that these observations apply to the fourth evangelist and his Gospel in a very special way. One has only to pick up the book and read its opening sentences to realize what a unique slant the evangelist gives to the familiar story of Jesus. There is something paradoxical about the introduction to this Gospel (1:1–18). It is written in the simplest language possible. Indeed, the first five verses are not only in basic Greek, to coin an expression in imitation of basic English; a beginner who has taken only his first steps in learning the language can make out those sentences. And yet the significance of its utterances about Jesus is nothing less than breathtaking. The Prologue plumbs the depths and scales the heights of the doctrine of Christ beyond anything written in the Bible. It unveils the central place of the Son of God in revelation, in creation, and in redemption; and it relates all this not only to the record of God’s revelation in the Old Testament but also to the religions and philosophies of the ancient world from primeval times to the fashionable thought of the evangelist’s day.

One of the greatest teachers of the early church, Clement of Alexandria, who was acquainted with the thought of the world of the second century of our era, wrote about this book: John, perceiving that the bodily facts had been made plain in the gospel, being urged by his friends and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual gospel.¹

It will be observed that in that statement there is no consciousness of opposition between the spiritual Gospel and the earlier Gospels. The so-called Muratorian Canon, a report on the books of the New Testament composed in the period of Clement’s ministry, elaborates what Clement said of the fourth Gospel, and then adds:

Although various points are taught in the several books of the gospels, yet it makes no difference to the faith of believers, since all things in all of them are declared by one supreme Spirit.

That is a perceptive statement. The differences between the accounts of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels and that in John are acknowledged, but the four accounts are seen to be complementary, and the varied interpretations are ascribed to the operation of the one supreme Spirit.

Once more, this aspect of the composition of the Gospels is especially apparent in John, which has more to say about the work of the Holy Spirit in the church than any of the other Gospels; and this Gospel specifically relates that work of the Spirit to the understanding of the words and deeds of Jesus.

We think, for example, of the statement of Jesus to the disciples in the Upper Room: I have spoken these things while remaining with you; but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will remind you of everything that I have said to you (John 14:25, 26). The Spirit, then, has the dual task of bringing to remembrance what Jesus has said and of instructing the disciples as to its meaning. That is precisely what we have in this spiritual Gospel—reminiscence of the works and words of Jesus as interpreted by the Spirit.

Our major task, accordingly, is to seek to interpret by the Spirit this interpretation of Jesus from the Spirit. All other issues in the investigation of the Gospel are subordinate to this supreme concern. It is well to recognize this at the outset, for in any case there is a great deal of uncertainty about many matters which people like to know about a book, for example, who wrote it, when it was written, where and for whom it was written, and the like. In particular, endless argument has taken place over the identity of the author of John. Books and articles have been devoted to it, sometimes with a vehemence suggesting that the validity and authority of the message of the book stand or fall with its traditional ascription of authorship to the apostle John.

In reality, this Gospel, like the others, is anonymous; it would be preposterous to commit ourselves to the view that the authority of our four Gospels depends on the accuracy of the ascription of their authorship by churches in the second century. The truth of their message depends on their connection with Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit given both to those who handed on the facts and their meaning and the evangelists themselves. In the case of our Gospel there is clear indication of the activity